The Righteous Man
by mangacrack
Summary: Gabriel/Sam; In which Sam is the Righteous Man, not Dean. Or rather, everyone thinks it's Dean and Gabriel is the only one, who knows the truth.
1. For your true self, Savior

Gabriel is God's Messenger. His Word.

He is not easily surprised. But when he sees Sam Winchester the first time the sight shocks him.

He had known about the Apocalypse. The End. Yet, he had always assumed the roles would be reserved. The Word had always been that Dean was the righteous man.

Gabriel knows the second he sees the demon blood invested soul of Sam Winchester that his brother had somewhere interpreted the prophecy correctly. They rarely did, but Gabriel has to admit that this usually his task. Without him they are bound to mess this up.

"Damned Kid," he swears and snaps up a distraction to watch Sam form afar. "What is gonna happen to you now?"

Clearly he can see it. Sam would be seen as an abomination. His demon blood invested soul that makes looking at him difficult at best and being the righteous man doesn't exclude being Lucifer's vessel.

Sam was the righteous man, because he was Lucifer's vessel. The world would be saved, but with all attention being focused on Dean, it would end with more sacrifices than Sam was supposed to give. A righteous man would save the world without ever becoming a hero.

'_Sam Winchester_' would free the devil and would condemned for it. None less his other deeds.

But as Archangel, as this specific Archangel, he could see the future and the past. He guided souls into they new life and would wait for them at the end of it. A long time ago he had held this soul before him.

A long time ago Sam Winchester had agreed to take this place in the world. To free Lucifer and save world, but at this point it wasn't supposed to end with three innocent souls falling to the cage. Neither of them: Sam, Adam or Michael deserved this. Because they, unlike Lucifer who had been _assigned_ to fall - couldn't get out on their own.

_I will have to find a way_, Gabriel thought. _Find a way to solve this. _

Because Michael was _hopeless_, when it came to Lucifer. Every other enemy that threatened life, love and hope Michael could deal with. Just his own brother, who faked it all, he couldn't see through. Sam and Adam, who agreed to this to distract the real enemy (bloody Leviathans! One day he would kill them all!), would suffer in hell forever if the ones who got tested helped the wrong man.

Dean wasn't made to do this. He wasn't capable of strengthen the barriers that held the Leviathans in purgatory.

_This won't do_, Gabriel decided and averted his gaze from the High School janitor, who the Winchester had just killed. He had seen the future and his current embodiment of a runaway Archangel, who didn't want to see his family fight, wouldn't be enough. To stop the Apocalypse perhaps, to deliver his Father's message how to open the cage perhaps, but it wouldn't be enough to save Sam from hell.

For a righteous man like Sam was in his heart and that the demon blood was supposed to hide, hell would mean consequences. His suffering would be worse than everything Dean would endure. It wouldn't be physical. It wouldn't involve a clear slavery structure that Dean would face on the rack. No, Sam would face slow mental corruption. Bereft of all safety hell would drive him insane and Sam would be lost.

Lost, because he volunteered a few centuries ago to take this part in a next life and somewhere someone was to blind see past demon blood.

_No_, Gabriel vowed. _In my Father's name. No. _

_This shall not be._


	2. The Hymn of the End

Sam had always been a bright boy. Bright, intelligent and determined.

Loki's hands are itching, when he watched Sam struggle against the boundaries set upon him. As a God, who loved the chaos, he appreciated the rebellion against a higher order, who tried to take away a brother you loved.

In the corner of his eye he observes Sam, while being little more than a shadow on the wall. The soul is burning with a heavy intensity and Loki is aware how much he is obsessing over it. The red threads of the demon blood are caging the soul, but Sam's sweet desperation is lighting it to a bonfire in the darkness.

Sam resembles Loki's true elder brother so much, it hurts. The old mindset inside Loki (called Gabriel) is deeply unsettled and stretching wings that are foreign. Never he had use for them. The Angel never had surfaced since centuries. Yet sometimes he gave directions. Loki knew, he was influenced by Gabriel's emotions. A mindset like his, so old and inhuman even to him, inside his own head, felt like standing next to a dragon.

Breath of a glowing, flaming and angry fire forced Loki to moves closer to Sam. To this brilliant soul, which light tensed Gabriel's wings and penetrated Loki's own tired and rotten mind.

Thousand years living in a world that demanded violence and cruelty of its survivors. Followed by false hope and lies, when Christianity conquered his home.

When Loki with Gabriel stared at Sam Winchester from the shadows, who called desperately out to his brother, who had Loki degreed to bleed out to death this day, he comprehended why angels and humans alike called Lucifer _The Lightbringer_.

_Magnificent, isn't he?_ Loki heard Gabriel's voice resonating inside his head and could only nod.

He understood as well why Gabriel couldn't specify who exactly he had meant with _he_: Sam or Lucifer.

_Such an incredible soul_, Loki thought and learnt how the angels must have felt, when they witnessed creation of this world. The race that always had been detested like every decent pagan god (Loki, though was everything but _decent_ and liked Gabriel to a great deal) had been right to worship YHWH all along.

The creation of humanity that led him to be able to witness this righteous soul, who begged for a brother, which awareness is tucked away of into a world of daydreaming, was enough to bring Loki to his knees.

Revelation, Yohanna had called it. He had been right.

Loki felt time using Gabriel's wings like a drum, a deep sound filled the small motel room, when Dean's life came to an end again. Lower, louder and unbroken the beat continued, when a gigantic universal clock judged Dean Winchesters life as _over_ and lifted the human curtain of ignorance for moment.

When Dean died and his lifeless blood stilled on the ground, Sam lifted his head and gazed beyond the abyss of Loki's mind.

"Reveal yourself", he commanded with the voice warriors used on battlefields. "Who are you?"

Loki felt Gabriel ascend and drowned in light, when the Archangel announced: "I'm Gabriel, the Messenger of God, Sam Winchester. The task given to you is still unfilled. You shall wake up tomorrow morning and find the Trickster's face."

It should have been private, just between the Angel and the Human, but Loki had been Gabriel's companion to long. The surge of grace hadn't pushed him away completely. Thus it made it possible for him to sense Gabriel's own conflicting emotions in this matter.

_You feel for this human_, Loki said to Gabriel, grinning. He was the God of Chaos. He was supposed to bring Ragnarökr, he recognized the Hymn of the End and its minstrels.

"You will not remember", Gabriel thundered the next moment.

As final answer to Sam's question, but Loki felt the ire directed at him. He grinned, madly, and laughed. Ire he was familiar with, this ire especially.

It told him, he had been right.


End file.
